President Trump addresses nation after mass shooting at Florida SchoolWhite House

"This certainly isn't the end," said the battalion commander, Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy at the plaza. "I don't want to give the wrong impression. There's still a lot of fighting to be done. But this is a momentous day."

The Marines came into central Baghdad, feeling like liberators. They arrived at Firdos Square, in front of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, home to the international press corps covering the war from here.

Related Stories

Then some in the crowd attacked a giant statue of Saddam Hussein that dominated the square. First a couple of sturdy young men climbed the 25-foot pedestal and tied a rope about the 40-foot statue. Then they moved to the base and used sledgehammers, breaking chunks out of it.

Nothing seemed to work. It looked like the bronzed Hussein, with his right arm raised, would yet survive, until McCoy got permission from his superiors to use an armored vehicles to help bring down the statue.

The tank company used a machine known as a "tank retriever," a huge machine, with a 1,300 horsepower engine. It's normally used to fix broken tanks and to haul them out of mud and stand.

In a less than diplomatic move, one Marine climbed the statue and wrapped an American flag around Hussein's face. The sudden quietness of of the crowd indicated this was not a good idea. That American flag was replaced by an Iraqi flag. That, too, was removed before the Marines resumed the serious business of pulling the statue down.

They tied a cable around the figure of Hussein, connecting it first at the groin region of the statue, for some reason, and then around the neck. And, finally, pulled him down.

People cheered and yelled and jumped on the fallen statue, beating it with sledgehammers. Someone removed the head and dragged it around the neighborhood. Iraqis hugged Marines. Marines hoisted their rifles.

Pulling down a tyrant's statue was in marked contrast to the work the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, part of the 1st Marine Division, had been doing lately. They'd been used to going after regular Iraqi army units around Basra, then taking on irregular militia and Saddam Fedayeen groups along the route from Basra to Baghdad.

The Marines fought tough battles in Diwaniya and Kut, and engaged in serious firefights on the bridge over a canal on the eastern edge of Baghdad. They lost three Marines to Iraqi fire in those engagements.

Wednesday had started out just after dawn with Marine tanks and infantry moving towards central Baghdad, anticipating more confrontations with militia forces.

About a half-mile in, they met resistance. Militiamen dug in around crossroads fired rockets and small arms fire. The Marines responded with tanks and heavy machine guns.

The Marines have shot up a lot of cars that were driving at checkpoints, fearing they were militia or Fedayeen making suicide runs.

"If he drives past that light pole, you can shoot," Coughlin said. "If he keeps coming in the face of all of this, he knows what he's getting into."

Meanwhile, there was gunfire in the distance. Heavy machine guns and tank cannons.

The Marines pushed on. Into nothing.

No Fedayeen, no militia, no Republican Guard.

Just apartment buildings and Iraqi citizens, smiling and waving from their balconies.

Then the press corps showed up. They'd lost their escorts and minders earlier in the day, and they felt at risk from looters, robbers and Fedayeen.

When McCoy saw them, he asked permission from senior officers to proceed to the Palestine Hotel and Sheraton area, where the Marines would set up a defense for the press corps and for local hospitals. Permission granted.

That led to what turned into the triumphant march to Firdos Square, and the toppling of the Hussein statue, a picture the Marines knew would be an instant symbol seen around the world.

The Americans, for the most part, were treated as conquering heroes. Young Iraqis put flowers in the pockets of their body armor. Kids begged for money.

There was a lot of smiling and laughing. One Iraqi slapped high-fives at passing Marines and Western reporters.

Some American and European "human shields" were there, antiwar activists who had come to Baghdad and placed themselves in front of power plants and other potential targets. They chastised the Marines for attacking Iraq and promoting war.

That angered some of the soldiers. "I didn't bury two of my fellow Marines just so someone like that could call us murderers," said one, angry and teary, referring to an Iraqi artillery attack that killed two of his colleagues on Monday. "They died for this country."

Meanwhile, two Iraqis held up a sheet bearing the message: ""Go home Human Shields, you U.S. Wankers."

The Marines posed for pictures with Iraqis and traded knickknacks. At one point, two rifle shots rang out. The crowd scattered and the Marines went to check it out. Nothing was found, but some of the more experienced troops worried that the party atmosphere could be spoiled by an attack.

As if it were a sign, the rumble of artillery and bombing could be heard in the distance.

With that, McCoy sighed and sat down in the middle of the square as dusk fell... Young children and parents stopped by to shake his hand and smile. One man kissed his cheek and hugged him, saying, "U.S. Army, good."

McCoy smiled and said, "Marines."

One young boy walked up and shook McCoy's hand. The battalion commander took off his helmet, and placed it atop the little boy's head, then leaned back and smiled.